Warriors in Peace Operations - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

teams and had one team erect the EMT while the other team
put up the OR and CMS. We decided to run the three
sections in parallel. Patients would enter the facility from
the front of the EMT where we would establish a
registration and triage area. The patient would then move
to the middle of the EMT where he would be seen by a health
care provider and rendered medical treatment. In the rear
of the EMT, our plan was to place four intensive-care beds
for any soldiers requiring in-patient care. To the rear of the
EMT, a controlled entrance would be erected to allow
passage into our CMS area. This area could provide sterile
instruments to both the OR and the EMT, yet be out of the
flow of normal patient and staff activity. On the backside of
CMS, we would erect another passageway into the
Operating Room area.
We were able to position all the pieces of equipment for
this first phase without any major difficulties. The second
phase of construction planned for this first day of operations
was to locate our x-ray and laboratory “boxes” alongside the
EMT/CMS/OR complex. However, the contracted truck
driver stated he could not drive the truck into the
designated locations to drop these expansible boxes because
he would get stuck in the mud surrounding the aircraft pad.
We therefore called for a crane to unload the expansibles.
Approximately 2 hours later, one arrived at the scene. The
crane operator attempted to unload the laboratory
expansible for over 3 hours. However, his crane was not
large enough to complete the job. So, both the x-ray
expansible and the laboratory expansible placement needed
to be postponed until the following day.
The next issue we needed to address was the absence of
fuel for our generators that provide power for heat, lighting,
and medical equipment within the hospital. We were having
difficulty scheduling a fuel truck to transport fuel to our
hospital site. After many attempts at arranging for a fuel
truck, one finally arrived on the scene. However, he arrived
with no fuel. After discovering he was empty, he left to
resupply, and it was some 2 hours before he returned. Upon
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